Yes, but I think they should change it.

English gives students many valueable career skills such as analysis and presentation skills. However, I think that instead of just reading novels students should be reading professional documents, technical writing etc. That would better prepare them for careers. English classes should only teach 1 or 2 books a semester to introduce students to literature, but not go so obsessively into analyzing works of fiction.

Of course it is needed

Understanding and comprehending literature is a skill that goes beyond the classroom. By understanding symbolism, it expands your critical thinking ability. Science and math classes also expand critical thinking skills, but English requires a different process to finding answers than the sciences. It is a much more creative, and arguably more applicable to real life, type of thought process. Also, there is not a book that loses it's meaning with age. The thing about books is that their messages stand the test of time. Even if they didn't, books need to be analyzed in order to gain an understanding of a time period. Books also expand your vocabulary, not to mention an understanding of grammar.

I am fucking retarded

I think English Classes are necessary.

English is not just a language that U.S.A and Britain use. English is a world wide language and is used the most in the whole entire world. Whenever you go, there will be at least one person who can speak English. To be prepared to go outside the real world, get jobs, and do things like that, English is very important. In conclusion, I think mandatory English classes are necessary.

Share no benefit to advanced students.

The students that score much higher than average eg. 12.9 reading and writing in a 9.0 class and beyond have nothing to gain. It is no benefit to the students, no matter what type of class. If classes were on certain aspects that one could opt into then it could benefit but currently it is not.

Not really necessary

In high school, there are plenty of other classes (mandatory and not) that enforce and teach what English class teaches you without having to waste an entire period of struggling to understand an obsolete, and unimportant language (old English) in a classroom.

Literature study has no educational value (unless you want to enter the literature field) and being forced to read books you don't care about and make up random conspiracies over that book you don't care about and receiving a mark based solely on your teachers opinion over how you presented your conspiracy about a book you don't care about. This seems like a waste to me.

Some would argue that English class teaches "qualitative critical thinking skills" but many other classes do the same (and a much better job at it). Science is a perfect example because it not only teaches qualitative thinking, but quantitative as well and requires you to combine the two to solve a problem... Doesn't that seem MUCH more useful?

Also how to write an essay is already taught within mandatory history classes OR it can easily become part of them (teaching a student how to write an essay properly is not hard and does not take long to learn), and learning about human history (and the mistakes it made) is far more useful than learning about a couple of books the are irrelevant to your life and Shakespeare (although Shakespeare was talented, he did not contribute MUCH to the progress of humanity- all he ever did was write plays and provide entertainment- and if he never existed... Would life be all that different?).